Matticus to Appear on Twisted Nether Podcast

It’s going to be a busy week for me. I was supposed to shoot with the Twisted Nether folks last week but I caught a nasty cold or flu or a cocktail disease containing a runny nose, wet cough, and a sore throat. I’m slowly recovering and I should be good to go for the shoot. My greatest fear is that I sound too “nasaly” or something. Following that, there’s also the WoW Insider show on Saturday. I’m going to see if there’s an opening for me there as well so you can have a double dose of Matticus to kick off your weekend ;).

Breana’s already sent me a few questions that they wanted me to touch on. I’ll do my best to answer a few of those. Actually, if you want to take a quick look at what I’ll be answering:

  • Why do you blog?
  • Your main is a dwarf, how do you feel about the lack of dwarf children in the game?
  • What motivated you to start writing?
  • What measure do I use to know if someone is a good healer?
  • Why have I never been Shadow?
  • Why do I love healing so much?

On the other hand, I love doing things on the fly. They’ve opened up the floor for listeners to ask their own questions.

I told them specifically not to tell me what the next set of questions will be. Surprise me. I used to do a bit of improv in high school. We’ll see if that translates well over iTunes. If you have any burning questions to ask, the above link is the way to go. We might not have time to get all of them in, but I will do my best and make an effort to try.

By the way, if you want to play a fun drinking game, every time Matt says “eh?” take a drink. Every time Matt says “aboot” down the whole glass.

Heh, I know I’ll at least have one person interested in listening.

Wyn’s UI – Part One

In the beginning… there was stock. And it was okay, but very limited. Thankfully, Blizzard designed the game to be almost infinitely customizable by players. I started out just wanting to show you the view from my chair, but then I realized that I’ve never found “standing around a major city” screenshots useful. Instead, I’ll be posting some “action shots” of my UI, the mods I use, how, and why. You’ll get a better idea of how I heal, and how I’ve gotten my UI to help me do that. There’s a lot of explanation involved, so I’ll do this in a couple of parts.

Personally, I don’t like a lot of crap that I don’t use sucking up power or my attention. I also like mods that pack a LOT of information into tiny packages. That said, I use a lot of add-ons, and I’m constantly auditioning more and deleting the old ones. Your eyes would bleed if I marked each one and told you what it was, so if you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Intro to my UI:

I had this idea in the middle of Black Temple, so I waited to get a nice, basic shot. Things will get a little more complicated when it’s in action. Personally, I want the middle of my screen as clear as possible. Priests have a bad reputation for dying, and I’ve found that keeping my field of vision very clear helps me move out of the way and stay alive. The mods I look at the most are right below my ‘toon, with those less relevant during combat further from that point.

Basic UI Shot. Englarged version coming!

1. The bar across the top is FuBar. Lightweight, with lots of modular plug-ins, FuBar makes it really easy to access and customize your mods. Keeps buttons off my mini-map, too. My personal favorite is RegenFu. This little gem tells me my int/mp5/spirit ratio on the fly, and how much time I’m spending in the 5SR; (85% on last fight). It also has a timer bar (which is faint, over my raid frame) that shows when I’m in the 5SR. Over time, I know if spirit or mp5 food or elixirs are more appropriate for a given fight, and I can better control my mana-consumption rate.

2. AG_UnitFrames. Before I used grid, I used AG for my basic Raid Frames. I still use it for 5-mans and a couple of other things because it’s lightweight, and very customizable. I’ve tried Pitbull, but found that it couldn’t do anything AG couldn’t do, and I already had AG the way I wanted it.
(2a) My frame and my target are at the top of the screen, and just above my chat box
(2b) you can see my focus frame and their target (in this case, I’m focused on myself for
some reason, so it’s just a miniature of what’s going on upstairs. Sorry about that.)

3. Grid took some getting used to, but it’s now my favorite mod. It shows a LOT of information in a very elegant and minimalistic manner. My groups are arranged horizontally, and the player names are cut off at a max of 4 letters. They are also colored according to class. That “W…” is me, and my group includes Wizendone (resto-shammy), Nl (s.priest), Haidi, and Alden (both healadins). Those that are greyed out are simply out of range.

A word on targeting: Obviously, you can see my target up at the top of the screen. One of the best rules of being an efficient healer is to maximize your reaction time. Minimizing the distance your eyes need to travel to get the information you need helps. Part of my solution has been to set Grid to have a white border around my target’s square. (Since I have myself targeted, and priests are denoted in white, it’s not showing properly.) Also, I use Quartz for my casting bar, and have it set to show the name of my target in the cast bar. Like this:

This makes it easy to avoid healing the wrong target, since my quartz goes right above grid.

4. Your spells have to go somewhere, and I use Bartender3 to keep mine organized. There are a LOT of mods that do this; find one that you like. You’ll notice that nearly all of them are hotkeyed – I navigate and target with my mouse, and cast with my keyboard. (That blank spot is for my Spirit buffs when I spec disc on the weekends.) You’ll probably notice a lot of icons you don’t recognize – I use macros very heavily. You’ll also notice how many ranks of Greater Heal and Flash heal I use. 4 of each. The fifth (5 and T, respectively) are stopcasting macros with the max-rank of the heal. (T is a little special, but I’ll get to that in the upcoming post on macros.) You may also notice that the only offensive spell I have hotkeyed is Pain. This is because I’m a healer, not a DPSer. Don’t worry, my offensive spells are easy to access (hold shift and scroll the mousewheel up once), it’s just that in the average raid, I don’t need them taking up space. I tend to click pots and such, so I don’t hit them accidentally while typing. The average amount per heal (or offensive spell) on each icon is from Dr. Damage. It helps me down-rank without having to read tool tips and do math in my head.

5. Recount. Use it. Love it. I have some great shots of how to use it for self-coaching later on. I have it running, set to “current fight” AT ALL TIMES. (Which is why it cleared once the boss was dead. Sorry about that, too.) See my previous post for why.

6. Simple Mini Map. I like it because it interfaces well with cartographer, it’s light, and it is very customizable.

7. Prat. A chat mod that lets remove you those damn arrows, and scroll with your mousewheel. Has a bunch of other nifty features I find useful. You’ll notice I don’t keep a combat log open. Recount substitutes for that.

8. ElkBuffBars. Matt made me get this one, and I’m glad he did. Montiors buffs, debufs, and everything else you need to know in a (say it with me!) Lightweight, customizable format.

Essential mods that you can’t see:

Deadly Boss Mods. Don’t leave home without it.

Omen Threat Meter. KTM was great. Omen is better. If you haven’t upgraded, do it now. Omen interfaces with KTM, too, so just because your Tank lives in the stone age isn’t an excuse for you to do the same.

Instant Health. This is a combat log parser that updates the health of your party or raid, with any raid frames, without waiting for the information to be sent to the server and back. It saves insane amounts of time (up to 3 seconds!!), and buys you time to react. As people keep stacking more and more Spell Haste, this kind of thing is going to become more popular.
(Edit: As I’ve been using this, I’ve noticed it messes with Recount and other combat-log parsers. Please be aware that it may interfere with any other mod you have reading this information; it is a known issue with the beta.)

More on Quartz. This has been around for a while, but I wanted to point out that it does more than allow you to change the look of your casting bar. The tail end of a given cast comes up in red (or any color you pick), and alerts you to your latency. What’s more, it allows you to begin a new cast before your computer has finished communicating with the server. This means you’re less at the mercy of Blizzard and your ISP to get those heals off in time. Pre-2.3, Quartz and a stop-casting macro were indispensible for quick heals. I still use stop-casting, although now more for mana regen purposes than global cooldown.

PoM Tracker – I found this after I took these screenies. I used to use Mending Minder, which stopped working at 2.4. This tells you who has your ProM, how many bounces it has left, and how much it’s healing. Nice.

To Be Continued. . .

Owned by Tree Form

Note: This post is not WoW related. Feel free to mark as read and move on to the next blog in your reader.

No, I’m not talking about WoW’s tree form! I managed to snap up copies of Wii Fit yesterday.

No joke, it’s a lot of fun! I got up this morning and tried the tree form stance but I just can’t manage it. I guess Dwarf Priests were never meant to mimic their Druid counterparts. Feel free to read up more on my experience and goals with Wii Fit.

(Yes I know it’s called Tree Pose as Wynthea so kindly reminded me, but I had to tie it into WoW somehow.)

An Open Letter to WoW Bloggers

Dear WoW Bloggers,

I’m directing this post to you in the hopes that you will break out of your creative shell at some point. Blogs die every day for various reasons. The author no longer has the time or maybe they’ve lost interest. Another common reason is that they can’t seem to come up with anything “good” for their blogs so they give up because they fail to attract visitors or fail to generate discussion.

What is a good blog?

That doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about the “good” part until you get the “blog” part down. I’ve spoken to my share of bloggers on the internet and I have sensed a common ailment that affects every single one of them. It’s dangerous, it stunts growth, and it slowly eats away at them without their realizing it.

It’s known as fear of failure.

For bloggers, this is bad. They’re afraid of writing because they’re afraid of being rejected. I believe every blogger out there is capable of great ideas and great posts. I also know they’re afraid of writing it down and exploring the idea because they feel “it’s too stupid” or “boring”.

Realize now that no two readers are made the same. What’s appealing for one person may not be appealing to the other. For instance, I read daily posts on encounters, raiding, and guild business. I tend to avoid story posts where this boss was downed. You might have a nice personal story to share, but I’m not interested. I want to get something of value out of what I read. I want to learn something new. Not everyone’s like that. Others read to escape or to entertain themselves. Readers want to have fun and laugh at stories that bloggers share.

Sometimes, the headlines speak for themselves and I can skip over the story. Let me give you a quick example of how the removal of even 1 character can change the face and feel of the story:

“25-manned Gruul”

vs

“5-manned Gruul”

Now what do you think I’m likelier to pick and read? Even though the 5 manning of Gruul may not be real, it’s still an eye catching headline that will make people pause and read.

Don’t worry

Guy Kawasaki is a business man I look up to. At one of his infamous keynotes, he made a reference to Walt Disney. There’s a song in the Disney franchise called “Don’t worry, be happy”. Guy twists it around in his talk and tells innovators to instead don’t worry, be crappy.

Everyone works hard in the real world to maintain an image and to be the model citizen. They live to serve the expectations that society dishes out. The internet’s a great place to escape that pressure. Write something outrageous! Be daring!

When you first start blogging, you can’t expect an audience immediately. Blogging is a social thing which encourages interaction. You’re not supposed to be a lecturer.

You’re going to write something once in a while that isn’t going to fly with what your readers like. They’ll let you know. Use that reaction for the future. Again, you’ll never know if people will like a post or not until you pen it and publish it.

This is how it works

You write a post which happens to link to another blog.
This other blog’s owner finds out they have an incoming link coming from your blog.
The curious blogger then clicks the link to your blog and starts reading.
The curious blogger proceeds to either like or dislike what you have to say and mentions your blog on their blog.
Other bloggers and readers pick up on it and come to your blog.
The process repeats.

It takes a lot of time to develop. A lot of bloggers give up because they don’t have the patience. This post isn’t directed to them. This post is aimed at the bloggers who claim they don’t have ideas.

Wrong.

You have ideas, you just don’t have the confidence to follow through on them. I want to read what it is that you have to say. I can’t form an opinion of a post if it hasn’t been written yet.

Get over your fear of rejection and just start writing.

The ABC’s of Raid Healing – the Evens

abc 
Image courtesy of RobK

After spending my precious non-WoW time on Age of Conan, I felt it was time for a break. For a blog post, why not write up the ABC’s of raid healing? But it was late. This column was penned at around 12 in the morning. 

For once, I needed help. A quick glance at the Blog Azeroth chatroom showed some idle activity but I found the name I was looking for. Anna, with speed that not even Nature’s Swiftness could rival, agreed to team up with me to write this post. She tackled the odds and I took the evens. Here’s what I came up with. Don’t forget to check out the other half on Too Many Annas when you finish!

Brain heal: When in doubt, bring more Resto Shamans.

Don’t lose confidence in your abilities as a healer.

Forget the naysayers. Break your healing problems down to the simplest level and try to solve each one individually.

Heal. Heal more. Heal fast. Heal smart. Heal now.

Just when you think it’s over and your raid will wipe because you’re fresh out of mana, the boss will die. Good work!

Line of sight. Don’t ever lose it. Precious seconds lost because you were readjusting to the tanks position could mean an imminent wipe.

No matter how tempting it may seem, don’t try to over extend yourself. You’ll end up burning up your mana faster when it should’ve been saved for your main assignments.

Prayer of Healing, Chain Heal, Binding Heal, Circle of Healing, and Tranquility are some of the best multi-target healing spells in the game. Understand the most opportune times to cast those spells on your group. Start forcing yourself to use them. A 3 second cast to heal the entire group is better then Flash Healing for 7.5 seconds to get your group to full.

Read up on raid strategies and boss fights before hand. Knowledge truly is power. By understanding what kind of damage you’re up against, you can develop countermeasures against it.

Use your Mana Potions, trinkets, and other mana returning abilities wisely. Time them well and the mana you get back will sustain yourself for the entire fight. Time it poorly and the raid will sit around not laughing as you stand, manaless, in the comedy spotlight.

Xamine your UI. Do you really need all that crap on your screen as a healer? What can you do away with? What can you not heal without? Are you being overloaded with information that you don’t really need?

Zealous healers make the best healers. It’s hard to show enthusiasm and excitement. But the ones that do are the ones your Guild wants to keep.